And Then There Was Darkness
by Melissa Waters
Summary: Oneshots about Apollo dying. Taking requests!
1. Chapter 1

**1)**

We had won. Caligula's troops were either laying on the ground or retreating as fast as a pack of hippocampi at my dance rehearsals. Bodies littered the ground, enemies, and friends. Monsters and demigods. I felt a sharp pang in my chest as I looked over them, all the death.

"Apollo!"

I swirled around as I heard my name being called and saw MEg rushing towards me, covered in grime and blood. I sighed in relief as I saw here. She wasn't dead! I took a step forward to rush to her when suddenly the world tipped sideways and I found myself on the ground.

At first, I thought I had simply tripped. That was until the pounding pain in my abdomen, growing every second turning sharper. I lifted my head and looked down at the red spreading over the front of my shirt. At first, I didn't realize what had happened or what I was seeing. Then it hit me. I was injured. Bad.

Distant footsteps echoed in my mind and Meg's heartbreaking scream broke the dull silence now growing in my mind. Her face swam into view as my vision darkened and I felt her hands press the wound while telling me something. Most likely commanding me to stay awake, to stay alive. Unfortunately, even though she did have power over me, that was a command I could not follow.

**2)**

I held the arrow to my chest and stared at Caligula with a level stare. Behind him, Jason and Meg were still trapped in Medea's grasp. I looked at Meg and saw her face was a mixture of emotion. I made out anger, but whatever else I saw must have been my imagination, for I saw fear. And my little friend was never afraid.

"Thank you, Meg, for showing me what it is, to be human. What it means to live, rather than simply be alive. What it means to have true friends, and have people care for you. Thank you, for letting me be your friend and thank you for taking me on your adventures. Though you are by far the most annoying creature in this universe, you... you are my best friend. Thank you."

And with that, I plunged the arrow into my chest. I made sure to glare at Caligula as the projectile sunk into my heart. His face turned to one of horror and fury, which made me smile. For I would die, knowing that I had stopped his plans. I would die, knowing that they would never succeed. I would die a human.

**3)**

"NOOOOOO!"

Without thinking, I flung myself in front of Meg, throwing my hands wide in a protective gesture. Time froze. I saw the arrow, headed straight for my chest, the intricate fletching and the glint of moonlight on the silver tip. I watched it fly straight, and unwavering, straight towards me. And then it was all over.

**4)**

Before I could stop to think about how stupid I was, I ran at Meg and threw myself at her. We tumbled to the ground, rolling head over heel, and landed at the bottom of the hill where we lay gasping.

"Apollo, you idiot, I had him-" Meg began then froze, her eyes widening in horror. I didn't need to look down to imagine the blood oozing from the wound on my stomach where the sword, meant for Meg, had impaled me.

I gasped as Meg hastily applied pressure on the wound while shouting for a healer. One of my children. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, and clutched the grass in a tight grip. My back arched as Meg pressed harder, in vain trying to stop the blood flow.

My vision was dimming and I must have been seeing hallucinations because I thought I saw her eyes beginning to water and even a stray tear slide down her cheek.

"Apollo, you idiot, don't you dare die," she grumbled, pushing onto my wound. I forced a smile, feeling myself slipping away.

"Funny. Even when I'm dying, bleeding out, most likely taking the last breaths of my life, here you are, calling me names. I wouldn't expect any less from the Meg I know." My world was dimming fast and I slumped down against the ground even more and closed my eyes to try and block out the pain.

Meg was telling me to do something and it sounded like she was telling me to breathe, which was funny, because I was. Then I realized I wasn't. She was pounding on my chest now, pushing it down with her hands. Trying to restart my heart.

And that was the moment that I, the great Apollo, God of the Sun, died.

**5)**

"Meg!" I screamed and leaped forward.

I caught her wrist just in time and for a moment I thought I had stopped us from falling over the cliff. That was until we toppled right over the edge. I caught the edge with my right hand while grasping Meg's wrist with my left. My arm felt like it was being pulled out of its socket. The only time I remembered feeling like this was when I challenged Ares to a chariot race and he somehow managed to pull me off my chariot break my arm when passing me and my horses. Some say that I was simply a bad chariot racer. I prefer the story of me tripping because of a rock in the road.

Oh my useless human brain, remembering equally useless things in the most life-threatening situations!

Caligula appeared above me, and I glared daggers into him while tightening my grip on Meg's wrist. Her unconscious body swung lifelessly in my grasp, and I feared she might have hit her head on the way down and now had permanent brain damage. Maybe she had some since the moment we met. I would never know.

Caligula let out a barking laugh. "What do I have here? The God Apollo, holding onto the small runt of a demigod, trying to stop her from falling to her death and being smashed on the rocks below! Interesting." Caligula gave me a smile that made my stomach drop. "But more interesting than seeing a demigod get smashed against rocks would be to see the same happen to a former god. What do you say, Apollo?"

"Well, if you're asking my opinion," I said through gritted teeth. "I'd say the best option would be to see the psychopath fall." Caligula smiled and bowed down while placing his heel over my fingers.

"I was simply being polite." And he pressed down.

I yelped in pain and was barely able to hold onto Meg. I couldn't let her fall no matter what. Caligula applied more pressure onto my fingers and I knew that any second now, I would fall off the ledge, taking my young friend with me.

I looked around for a way out, but the only two directions accessible were up and down. And neither was preferable. If we went down, we stayed down. If we went up, we would be in the hands of the enemy who wanted to kill us. But there was a chance of escape.

That was my first thought. My second thought was, that there was no way I would get us both up there.

I fear the bones in my fingers cracking and made my decision. With all my puny mortal strength and the remains of my godly strength, I flung Meg into the air and over the side of the cliff. At the same moment, Caligula decided to lift his foot and bring it down only my hand.

Time slowed down. My hand let go of Meg's wrist as Caligula's foot connected with my hand and I began falling in slow motion. Right before the sharp rocks and cold water below shredded me into pieces, I was Meg disappear over the edge and onto relatively safe ground, and I found myself feeling something I had never felt before.

I was at peace.

**6)**

"Artemis! NO!"

I ran as fast as I could, horror clutching my heart. There, on the ground lay my sister, injured and helpless as Caligula stood over her, ready to bring his sword down. He lifted the weapon into the air and I pulled my own out of my scabbard.

As Caligula brought the sword down, swept min in a wide arch. His sword shattered to pieces and mine cut into the flesh in his stomach.

Artemis covered herself with her hands as the pieces of sword fell onto her. Caligula clutched his stomach where blood was seeping through his clothing and glared at me. Then, without a moment of hesitation, be grabbed my arm, twisted my sword out of my hand and it flew a few meters away. I didnät have time to react before he leaped forward and plunged the sharp stub of his sword into my abdomen.

I gasped as I felt the steel enter me, and shred apart my organs. Pain like I had never felt before exploded over me as Caligula twisted the dagger, grinning like a mad man. My legs gave away from underneath me and I grasped Caligula's shoulder to keep myself standing.

I heard Artemis screaming my name behind me, sobbing, but her voice seemed far away. Caligula grinned at me and twisted the sword once more. I cried out in pain and collapsed onto the ground. Caligula pulled out the sword and stood up straighter, ignoring the red spreading across his clothes. We walked over to my sword and trudged back to my sister, who was now staring at me, tears spilling out of her eyes.

Caligula brought the sword to his shoulder and brought it down on her neck.

"My Lady!" I knew I should have recognized the voice, but my brain was growing fuzzy; fuzzier than usual. A silver arrow hit the sword directly and it escaped Caligula's grasp, only nipping my sister's neck.

A mess of black hair appeared in the sides of my vision as Thalia Grace rushed to Artemis' side and nicked another arrow on her bow, shooting it directly at Caligula. I didn't see it hit, but Caligula stumbled back and fell to the ground a silver arrow lodged in his forehead. He was dead.

Thalia kneeled next to her Lady, but Artemis paid her no mind. Whatever spell she had been under was now gone and she immediately rushed to my side.

I cried out as she lifted me up and propped me against her. She held me close and I let my head rest against her chest. Tears dripped down onto my cheeks, hers and mine. I felt a pang in my chest for seeing her cry. I didn't like it one bit.

I shifted my head and looked up at her and smiled gently.

"I had forgotten how beautiful you were," I whispered. Artemis wiped away her tears.

"And I, you."

I huffed then grimaced because it caused me great pain. "I'm not exactly beautiful now, am I?"

She shook her head sadly. "You were never beautiful to me because of what you looked, but because of what was on the inside."

I smiled and suddenly I felt something in my throat. I coughed and a spurt of blood exploded from my mouth. I made sure to turn my head so that I wouldn't cover Artemis. She let out a dry sob.

I started shaking and pressed my eyes shut. I was getting cold and told her about it. She soothed my hair and told me she knew. I gulped and bit back a sob of my own. But it was not a sob of pain or a sob for my lost godly self. It was for all the people I had left behind and all the adventures I had left to go through with them.

And then I realized something.

"I'm not scared." Saying it out loud made it more clear. "I'm not scared to die, sister. I've lived my life, and it's been amazing. And it may hurt, a lot, but I'm not scared to die."

Artemis soothed my cheek. "I know, brother. You were always the bravest of us two."

We both knew that wasn't true, but I appreciated the compliment. Artemis pressed her forehead against mine.

The world lost color.

"Goodbye, Apollo," she whispered. I smiled.

"Goodbye… my dearest sister."

The sun didn't shine for a very long time after that.

*****Hope you enjoyed the chapter and future ones as well. There is one problem though. I am in need of ideas! Review or send me a private message about yours, and I'll see what I can do!*****


	2. Mr Clown

***This chapter is entirely dedicated to Bella2be, who gave this amazing idea. All credit goes to him/her!***

7)

To be honest, I never thought that I would die. And if I did, it was most definitely not like this.

This was a direct insult to my godhood! I would not be killed by this… this clown! Though with the knife and blood-red nose, he did look quite terrifying. I felt an urge to jump behind Meg to protect myself.

My young friend didn't seem to be fazed by the clown at all. Though it was at least twice her size and most likely held a much scarier creature inside, she only held up her golden swords and yelled insults at it.

I thought it was a bad idea. The words might agitate the clown and make him want to kill me even more, which I did not like one bit. I backed away as much as I could in the tiny room we were in, trying to cover up the large wet spot that may or may not have appeared on my pants.

The clown grinned at me with a most disturbing smile and I cringed at the rubber mask. How could a piece of rubbish like this make me, the great Apollo so terrified?

"Am I dreaming?" the clown suddenly spoke. The voice was low and rough and sent shivers down my spine. I shrunk back. "The god Apollo, shivering in fear, at my feet?" The clown laughed and I flinched looking around.

The dark cavern we were in was only some ten meters in diameter, smelled like my outhouse back on Olympus and was empty excluding me, Meg and Mr. Clown here. My sword, which I had dropped at the sight of my opponent appearing out of the shadows without warning, lay on the opposite end of the room, out of my reach. I cursed under my breath and turned back to look at my opponent - just in time to duck the knife that swished over my head, cutting off a few strands of my curly hair.

"Hey! Watch the hair! It took me ages to get it to look like this!" I complained and Meg stepped beside me, brandishing a knife of her own.

"Yeah. Ages in the musty old tunnels that led us here, full of spiders and scorpions," she retorted. I have her a quick glare.

"Exactly. You don't get that kind of care in many places."

It felt good to bicker in the face of certain death and I wondered how many of my relatives upon Olympus were enjoying the show. Mr. Clown, though, didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I did. He ripped his mask off and revealed a brown, wrinkled face, with a golden nose piercing and horns sticking out of his head. He reminded me of the Minotaur, but I knew this wasn't him. The minotaur was much more ugly and larger.

"You will die today, Apollo! I will rip you to pieces and take you to my master! I will be victorious!" he screamed. Meg huffed.

"Right. And in three seconds I'm going to grow wings and fly across the room," she said. She wasn't that far from the truth, because the next instant, Mr. Clown had leaped forward and backhanded her hard and sent her crashing into the wall on the opposite side of the room. She hit the stone with a crack and collapsed onto the ground.

I cried out her name and started forward, but saw her stir and knew she was going to be okay. I couldn't say the same for myself though.

I looked up at the grim and snarling face of Mr. Clown and gave a small smile. "Can't we talk about this?"

He snorted. "Talk about this!"

The punch took me off guard and sent my crashing onto the floor with a broken nose and a couple of my teeth undoubtedly missing. Before I could do as much as grimace in pain, a heavy kick landed on my back with a resounding CRACK!

The air was knocked out of my lungs and I curled into a ball as more kicks and hits rained on me. This wasn't the way I thought I'd die.

When I imagined my death, I imagined it thousands of years from now, in battle, dying as a real god should. Not in a ball, beaten to death by a clown, miles underneath the surface of the Earth.

I opened my eyes and looked at Meg. She was trying to rise onto the feet but had so far had only managed to rise onto her forearms. She was screaming at me to get up and fight. And that's what I did.

Ignoring the pain it caused me, I twirled around and grabbed Mr. Clowns foot as it rounded on my for another kick. I pulled on it and he crashed into the ground with a thud. The minute he was down I rolled away and grabbed the knife that he had dropped and backed towards Meg.

Adrenaline was pumping through my veins, but even that couldn't stop the searing pain from exploding over my back and I collapsed onto the ground. Never in my four-thousand years, had I experienced pain like that. Without a second of uncertainty, I knew that my back was broken.

Mr. Clown let out an outraged roar and rushed at me. I put the knife up in defense, but Mr. Clown batted it away like it was nothing, then grabbed my throat and began choking me.

The pressure on my neck made my back hurt, even more, the crushing weight of Mr. Clown pressing on my making it hard to hold back a scream. I searched my brain for anything that might help me out of the situation and I was transported to one of the fighting lessons back at Camp Half-Blood.

I put my fingers together and formed my pals into a sort of C-shape, and with a fluid motion I put both of my cupped hands between Mr- Clowns straight ones and pulled them to the sides. His grip on my throat opened immediately and his arms gave way. As he fell onto me, I thrust my hips up over my shoulder, rolled and ended up so that I was above him instead.

Tears sprung into my eyes from the pain the movement caused but I forced myself to give him a few good punches before throwing his leg over my head and backing away. I fell to the ground and crawled the rest of the way to Meg as Mr. Clown recovered from my blows.

Meg's face was a mixture of admiration, happiness, and humbleness. At least, I hoped it was. It could have been fear, anger, and disappointment. I hoped it wasn't the latter. I stopped next to her, catching my breath and on the verge of sobbing. My back was throbbing like Hephaestus had just massaged me with his sledgehammer. I hadn't liked it the first time and I didn't like it now.

"How hard are you hurt?" she asked and I saw real worry on her face, which, in a way, surprised me.

I grimaced and leaned my head against the rock. "My back's broken," I choked out. "And most likely a couple of other bones. Please get rid of the giant, crazy clown for me."

Meg huffed, but pushed herself to her feet and gripped her swords angrily and stormed out of my line of sight. I tried turning my head to look at what was going on, but the pain was too much so I simply stood still and tried to listen and create a picture in my head.

I heard metal clang against metal, meaning that most likely Mr. Clown had back his knife and was using it to try and kill Meg. I heard her grunt and hiss, which I thought might have been a good sign because she wouldn't be hissing if she was dead. Hopefully.

"You are a waste of my time, mortal!" Mr. Clown finally spat and the next sound was of MEg crying out in pain and falling to the floor with a thump. I felt fear clutch my heart and called out her name but was met by silence.

A rough hand grabbed the back of my shirt and hoisted me into the air. I gasped and bit my lip as Mr. Clown stared at me murderously.

"Any last words, oh Great Apollo?" he asked and dropped his dagger, which surprised me.

I appreciated the politeness, but noted the sarcasm in his voice and answered back with a hiss. "Go to Tartarus." Mr. Clown only laughed.

"Oh, I will. But you'll go there first."

My head cracked against the wall with such force, that if I had been in my godly form, it would have cracked the whole mountain in half. The only thing it cracked in half now was my skull. Mr- Clown brought me back towards him, before bashing me against the stone again and again. I must have screamed at him to stop because my throat felt sore as he pulled my back for the final time. Over his shoulder, I saw Meg, barely conscious staring at me with unfocused eyes. I saw her chest rise slightly and though it was a relief that she was alive for the moment, I couldn't help but fear for what would happen to her once I was gone.

As I shot back towards the wall, I stared straight into Mr. Clowns golden eyes and smiled. I didn't know why I smiled. I just did. It seemed right. And so I, Apollo, god of the sun, died with a smile on my face because no amount of darkness could dim out the light inside.


End file.
